This invention relates to border pieces for wall fabric, and more particularly to a border piece for mounting a fabric sheet parallel to a plane surface, and still more particularly to such a border piece comprising an extruded member including body and locking portions and a hinge portion joining the body and locking portions.
Traditionally, upholstered walls were fabricated by stapling fabric to a wood frame secured to the wall. The fabric was stretched and temporarily tacked, basted to the frame in the same way as classic furniture upholstery to assure the stretching out--tensioning of the fabric, thus eliminating the natural mechanical extensibility of the fabric as well as exposing the fabric to the atmospheric conditions of the area to assure that the fabric will not appear to ripple or sag due to variances in temperature and humidity which will affect the dimensional stability of most fabrics and blends of yarn types used.
The basting and stretching process, wherein the fabric is stretched, basted and restretched until the fabric achieves the appropriate tension, assures that the stretched fabric will withstand the normal expansion and contraction which occur due to changes in temperature and humidity.
Thus, although the fabric may be more or less tight from day to day, due to variances in atmospheric conditions, the fabric wall will still have a substantial degree of a tautness created by this stretching and restretching process so that the wall of fabric will appear flat, smooth and taut, and not appear soft, ripple or sag. Further, the upholstery process of stretching, basting, and restretching permits the upholsterer to pull the warp and weft of the fabric into a square and plumb condition.
The prior art has provided means of mounting fabric without an exposed fastening means; however, no provision was made for appropriate tensioning, retensioning and subsequent mounting of the fabric. A glue surface, as used in the prior art, is an appropriate material to mount and remount and properly tension the fabric. However, due to the substantial amount of fabric dust and foreign matter contained in the fibers of most fabrics, a glue surface is not an appropriate basting means. Furthermore, the ability of a tactile glue surface is substantially compromised and reduced each time a fabric is adhered, removed and readhered to the same glue strip.
Fabric is woven square; however, finishing and uneven tensions within the cloth cause the warp and weft to be askew when the cloth is relaxed, i.e., unrolled. A requirement of the upholstery process is to pull these wayward yarns into their appropriate alignment To do this, it is necessary to put substantial tension on the fabric both in warp and weft to assure the appropriate alignment of the yarns. Thus an additional problem to be overcome in the design of a border piece is the ability to properly tension and secure fabrics of varying thicknesses.
An additional problem is accessibility, i.e., easy removal of the fabric for cleaning, service to the wall behind, access to the wall behind to install a thermostat, electrical outlet, picture blocking or the like and easy replacement thereof.
Acordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide an effective, low-cost fabric mounting system, which is contemporary in design and is concealed in use, avoiding the need for trimming, braids, or other traditional means to hide the mounting system.
Another object is to provide such a system incorporating means for concealed fastening and mounting of the fabric to a frame.
A further object is to provide such a system offering the ability to stretch, baste and restretch the fabric until the appropriate tension is achieved to overcome the natural mechanical extensibility of the fabric.
It is also an object of this invention to provide such a system with sufficient tension to avoid visual rippling or sagging of the fabric due to variances in the atmospheric conditions which can cause the fabric to expand and contract depending on the yarn content.
It is another object is to provide such a system enabling squaring of the fabric under tension in order to assure that the warp and weft are square, plumb and level with the adjacent horizontal surfaces, and plumb with the adjacent vertical surfaces.
It is a further object is to provide such a system possessing a number of advantages over the known prior art, in terms of being cheaper to manufacture, simpler to use, and better and more reliable as to its fabric-holding properties.